Despite our cultures being continent apart, there are similarities and differences on how communication works in our cultures. The goal of the assignment is for two students of different background to interview each other and learn what is alike and distinct between their cultures. Leslie Leanos is the person that I interviewed for this essay. She is from a Mexican-American background while my background is Vietnamese. We came up with five questions and recorded our answers on the document. We then analyzed the responses and evaluate them based upon what we have learn in the course. The essays consists of my analysis of the similarities and differences of the responses of Leslie and me.
Body Paragraphs Leslie and I share similar attributes. …show more content…
“My culture does not view time in a strict way” (Leanos, Leslie). Leslie elaborates further by stating how people in her culture arrive at a party later than the scheduled time. My culture views time in a lax manner, e.g., we don’t state a specific time for a situation; rather, we use vague term, such as morning, afternoon, or evening, to describe when something will happen. Time is not viewed as an essential resource for polychronic cultures (O’Hair, Weimann, Mullin, Teven, 2014, P. 132). I am not surprised by this similarity as I believe that cultures that value the family unit have the same view on time being less important. For example, my mom puts aside her time to spend with the family despite her busy work schedule. I believe that the characteristics for collectivist culture and polychronic culture go …show more content…
I do not use hand gesture when I am communicating; however, I do notice that my family and people in my culture use hand gesture to help facilitate their points when they are communicating. Leslie also states that in her culture hand gesture is prevalent (Leanos, Leslie). She uses the example that when she talks about height her hand gesture would be to place it at the position to help show how tall or short it is. I believe that hand gesture is common in both our cultures because it increases the meaning of our words. In fact, hand gesture in this context supports the concept of complementing, “nonverbal behavior that is consistent with the verbal messages and often enhances it” (O’Hair et al., 2014, P.
Body Paragraphs Leslie and I share similar attributes. …show more content…
“My culture does not view time in a strict way” (Leanos, Leslie). Leslie elaborates further by stating how people in her culture arrive at a party later than the scheduled time. My culture views time in a lax manner, e.g., we don’t state a specific time for a situation; rather, we use vague term, such as morning, afternoon, or evening, to describe when something will happen. Time is not viewed as an essential resource for polychronic cultures (O’Hair, Weimann, Mullin, Teven, 2014, P. 132). I am not surprised by this similarity as I believe that cultures that value the family unit have the same view on time being less important. For example, my mom puts aside her time to spend with the family despite her busy work schedule. I believe that the characteristics for collectivist culture and polychronic culture go …show more content…
I do not use hand gesture when I am communicating; however, I do notice that my family and people in my culture use hand gesture to help facilitate their points when they are communicating. Leslie also states that in her culture hand gesture is prevalent (Leanos, Leslie). She uses the example that when she talks about height her hand gesture would be to place it at the position to help show how tall or short it is. I believe that hand gesture is common in both our cultures because it increases the meaning of our words. In fact, hand gesture in this context supports the concept of complementing, “nonverbal behavior that is consistent with the verbal messages and often enhances it” (O’Hair et al., 2014, P.